Blunder Camp" : a note on the Braddock Road / by Paul A.W. Wallace.

Date

Due

JUh I

i 193?

«uL 0

i Mf

■ —

— ____

1

1

—

■

PW'NTtO I N U 1 <

CAT NO 2-1 161

PENNSYLVANIA STATE LI
General Library Burea
Government Publications,

tv

“Blunder Camp”:

A Note on the Braddock Road

By

Paul A. W. Wallace

Reprinted for the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Vol. LXXXVII, No. i, January, 1963

rr u A NT h

C^ATT T IB

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016 with funding from

This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries

https://archive.org/details/blundercampnoteoOOwall

“Blunder Camp”:

<iA C\(ote on the 'Brad dock Bond

In the mid-eighteenth century, when the French and English in
America settled down to their final contest for the interior of the
continent, they concentrated at first on the Forks of the Ohio,
the strategic site which commanded the best available trade and
military routes between the seaboard and the prairies. There, where
the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio, the
French built Fort Duquesne, an offensive move which aroused the
British lion.

Major General Edward Braddock, an experienced field com-
mander, concentrated an army of some 2,200 men for his march
across the Allegheny Mountains to capture the French fort. Estab-
lishing a base at Wills Creek (Cumberland, Maryland), Braddock
prepared to follow Nemacolin’s Path1 across a formidable array of
mountains: Wills Mountain, Big Savage Mountain, Red Ridge,
Meadow Mountain, Negro Mountain, Winding Ridge, Division
Ridge, and Chestnut Ridge.

Most of the way the route was not difficult to follow. Nemacolin’s
Path, which had already been touched up a little with ax and pick
in an effort to make it passable for wagons,2 led all the way to the
summit of Chestnut Ridge (a few miles southeast of Uniontown),
where it debouched onto a branch of the Catawba Path. At Jacobs
Creek, the Catawba Path intersected the Glades Path, a branch of
which led to the Forks.

A detachment of several hundred men preceded the main body,
opening a twelve-foot-wide wagon and artillery road. These pioneers
felled trees, bridged creeks, and laid causeways across the swamps.

1 See Paul A. W. Wallace, “Historic Indian Paths of Pennsylvania,” The Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography ( PMHB ), LXXVI (1952), 435-436.

2 Hugh Cleland, George Washington in the Ohio Valley (Pittsburgh, 1955), 4; James Veech,
The Monongahela of Old , or Historical Sketches of Southwestern Pennsylvania to 1800 (Pitts-
burgh, 1858-1892), 27.

21

1 •>

PAUL A. W. WALLACE

January

Despite their efforts, baffling difficulties plagued the army’s march.
The strain of hauling supply wagons over roads that, in Colonel John
St. Clair’s words, were “either Rocky or full ot Boggs,”3 was too
much for the horses, many ot which sickened and died. Ot necessity,
the men turned to and helped pull wagons and guns out ot mud holes
and up steep river banks at the fords. A detachment of sailors,
experienced in the use of block and tackle, had been brought along
for just such a purpose. '* But to move artillery — six pounders, twelve
pounders, and howitzers — over those hastily widened Indian paths
was nearly impossible. On Wills Mountain it was impossible. Here,
on the first stage out from New Cumberland, Braddock had to admit
defeat. After wrestling with the mountain for several days, during
the course of which a number of wagons broke down, the advance
party reported that the way was not passable for howitzers. In
consequence, Braddock risked making his road through the narrows
of Wills Creek, a way that was dangerously subject to Hood, although
easily negotiable in good weather.3 Today, the National Highway,
U. S. 40, follows Braddock’s road through the narrows which, despite
the artificial channeling of the creek’s water, still provides one of the
most spectacular “water gaps” in these mountains.

The course of the road and the sites of Braddock’s twenty camps
have been pretty well determined. In the nineteenth century, James
Veech broached the subject in The Thlonongahela of Old (Pittsburgh,
1858-1892). In 1855, W'inthrop Sargent published the journal of
Captain Robert Orme, General Braddock’s aide-de-camp, with a
long historical introduction.6 Best of all, in 1 9 1 4, John Kennedy
Lacock, after exhaustive research among the available records and
after walking over as much of the road as could still be traced, pub-
lished an all but definitive study, “Braddock Road,” in The 'Pennsyl-
vania rjhlagazine of History and Tiography J

:i Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire Before the American Revolution, VI, The
Years of Defeat (New York, 1946), 83.

1 Winthrop Sargent, The History of an Expedition against Fort Du Qucsne (Historical
Society of Pennsylvania Memoirs, Y( (Philadelphia, 1855), 366.

r> John C. Schmidt, “The Maryland Pass that Opened the West,” Baltimore Sun, Dec. 1 8,
i960, IO-I2.

0 Sargent, 281-357.

7 PMHB, XXXVIII (1914), 1-38. The present writer, who has studied Prof. Lacock’s
printed work as well as the notes he left behind with his nephew, Voy Lacock of Washington,
Pa., conferred frequently with the late William J. I.aughner of Grecnsburg, Pa., one of Lacock’s

1 963

A NOTE ON THE BRADDOCK ROAD

O °

Lacock, however, was aware that he had not resolved the entire
matter. In particular, he recognized that Robert Orme’s journal, his
principal source of information, did not provide clear evidence ol
exactly where the army camped each night between July i and

July 7-

Recently, new sources have come to light which help to solve these
problems, notably Gist’s map, “The Draught ol Gen1 Braddocks
Route towards Fort Du Quesne as deliver’d to Capt. McKeller,
Engineer, by Christopr Gist The 15th of Sepr 1755.” Mr. Donald A.
Kent of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has
found two variant drafts of this map, both apparently made from
Gist’s original, which no longer exists. One of these drafts is in the
Huntington Library and the other is in the John Carter Brown
Library.* * * * 8 The drafts are especially valuable because Gist, who was
an experienced woodsman and accurate observer (if one may judge
from his report of the journey made with Washington to Fort
Le Boeuf in 1753), lists the distances between camps and shows the
location of each camp in relation to identifiable creeks or runs.

Where Gist’s evidence conflicts with Orme’s and Lacock’s, his map
finds corroboration in two recently published journals, that of an
anonymous British officer who made the campaign with Braddock,
and that of Captain Robert Cholmley’s batman.9 Colonel Sir Peter
Halkett’s orderly book, which is published in the same volume,
contributes further to elucidating Braddock’s itinerary in the names
it gives to certain camps.

With these new source materials at hand, the sites of camps 14 to
19 (July 1 to 7) can now be determined with much greater accuracy.
In the following list, each camp is identified by the name Gist gave
it, with Lacock’s better known name in parentheses.

7\o. /.g, July i: tarripen creek (Great Swamp Creek). Lacock
was correct in placing “the great swamp’’ at Green Lick Run.

field assistants, visited many parts of the road and walked it from Fort Necessity to the Half

King’s Rock, and who has examined many warrantee surveys that show the old road’s course,

can vouch for Lacock’s painstaking and penetrating research, as well as the acumen and good

sense he brought to bear on the sometimes intricate problems of camp site identification.

8 Copies of these drafts are at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

9 Charles Hamilton, Braddock' s Defeat (Norman, Okla., 1959).

24

PAUL A. W. WALLACE

January

Captain Orme noted that, after having traveled “about 5 miles”
from the last camp (which was one mile north of the crossing of the
Youghiogheny at Connellsville), they “could advance no further by
reason of a great swamp which required much work to make it
passable.”10

J(o. /5, July 2: Jacobs cabbins (Jacobs Cabin). Lacock was
wrong in supposing that from the camp at the swamp the army
marched only one mile to Jacobs Cabin, which he took to be on the
south side of Jacobs Creek.11 Captain Orme, Cholmley’s batman, and
the anonymous British officer agree that Jacobs Cabin was about six
miles from the preceding camp. Gist puts the distance at five miles.

The evidence of these four contemporary observers — namely, that
Jacobs Cabin was five or six miles beyond the camp at Green Lick
Run — is reinforced by a warrantee survey12 showing a plot of land
described as “a Mile and an half from Jacobs Hunting Cabbin on
Braddocks road.” Enough of the surrounding country, together with
the road, is shown to pinpoint “the place where,” as the surveyor has
written on the draft, “Jacobs Hunting Cabbin is said to have stood.”
Since he marked and described features of the landscape which are
still easily identifiable, it is not difficult today to locate pretty closely
the site of the cabin. It was on a gentle ridge just east of what was
once Jacobs Swamp (since drained) and on or near a still passable
road about two and a quarter miles north of the head of Eagle Street
(the Braddock Road) in Mount Pleasant. In other wrords, Jacobs
Cabin was five and a half miles, by the Braddock Road, from the
crossing of Green Lick Run.

To this identification it might be objected that camp No. 14 at
the swamp was called “Camp Near Jacobs Cabbin” in Colonel
Halkett’s orderly book. But the objection must be overruled. Halkett
called the next camp (No. 15, July 2) the “Camp at Jacobs Cab-
bins.”13 The change from near to at does not indicate that there were

10 Sargent, 346.

11 PMHB , XXXVIII (1914), 29 (note 65). The creek is thought to have been named for
Captain Jacobs, a famed Delaware war chief who assisted in the defeat of Braddock in July,
1755, and a year later in the capture of Fort Granville on the Juniata. He was killed at
Kittanning on Sept. 8, 1756, by Col. John Armstrong’s raiders.

12 This survey, D 46-100, Bureau of Land Records, Harrisburg, Pa., was made in 1787
in pursuance of an order of survey dated Apr. 3, 1769.

13 Hamilton, 1 17.

1963

A NOTE ON THE BRADDOCK ROAD

25

Camp Sites on the Braddock Road

if)

PAUL A. W. WALLACE

January

two places called Jacobs Cabin. It indicates, rather, that Jacobs
Cabin was an important landmark, like the Great Meadows." Only
Halkett referred to Jacobs Cabin on July i. They all referred to it on
July 2, Orme and the British officer calling it “Jacobs Cabbin,” while
Crist and Halkett called it “Jacobs Cabbins.”

There is further evidence in support of the survey’s identification
of the site as north of Mount Pleasant. The “Journal of a British
Officer’’ noted that, whereas the direction of the march on July 2
approaching Jacobs Cabin was “still to ye Northward,” the direction
changed when they left the cabin on July 3 “to ye Westward of the
North.”13 It is a fact that within half a mile north of the camp site
by Jacobs Swamp the Braddock Road turned sharply from a north
to a northwest course, which it held thereafter for many miles.

j\o. 16, July j: lick camp (Salt lack Camp). Colonel Halkett
called this the “Camp at the Deers Lick.” The British officer called
it “Lick Creek” and observed, “This Creek takes its Name from a
Lick being there, where Deer, Buffaloes & Bears come to lick ye
Salt out of ye Swamp. . . .”lfi

Where was this salt lick? Christopher Gist said it was four miles
from “Jacobs Cabbins.” \\ hat used to be called “Goudy’s Fording”
of Sewickley Creek (at Hunkers, about a mile southwest of New
Stanton) is exactly four miles from the cabin by way of the Braddock
Road. On Sewickley Creek, about half a mile beyond that crossing,
there was formerly a salt mine.17 Jack Veetch, whom the writer met
at the mine on June 4, 1962, said: “They drilled for a well here [near
the south bank of Sewickley Creek ] four months ago and got water
heavy with salt. The same thing happened on the other side of the
creek. We understand this mine was used originally for salt.” No
doubt, Lick Camp was a little west of Goudy’s Fording and on the
edge of the salt swamp of which these vestiges remain.

:\o. //, July 4 and 5; camp three miles from lick (Thicketty
Run Camp). Gist and Lacock agree that this camp was beside a
small run a mile southeast of Madison. The modern road crosses it
at the approximate site of the camp.

1 1 Note ( list’s mention of "Camp (i M. cast of gt. Meadows," and Halkctt’s "Camp beyond
the Great Mcdows.” Ibid., 112.

IS Ibid., 47.

Ibid.

1" Its place is now taken by No. 10 mine of the Delmont Fuel Company.

i963

A NOTE ON THE B RAD DOC K. ROAD

J\ (o. 18, July 6: monacatootha camp (Monacatuca Camp). This
camp, named for the unhappy accident by which Monacatootha’s
(Scaroyady’s) son lost his life, was, according to local tradition,18
beside a stream in a wide, comfortable valley where the late William
B. Howell’s house (now presided over by his two daughters) fronts
a road that is undoubtedly Braddock’s. But, if Gist correctly meas-
ured the distance from the preceding camp, Monacatootha Camp
was a mile and a half beyond the Howell house. Orme, the British
officer, and the batman agree with Gist that the distance between
the two camps was “about 6 miles.” A march of six miles over these
pleasant hills from Thicketty Run by the almost straight north-
northwest course of the Braddock Road would bring the army to a
spot two miles southwest of Irwin, and two miles north of Rillton.

Since, however, this location is on high ground, an objection at
once comes to mind. Why should Braddock have set his camp on a
dry hill instead of in a well-watered valley? One might expect the
proximity of good water to be a first consideration in the selection of
a camp site. In reply, we have Gist’s map, which shows camp 18 to
be some distance from any stream. We have also the word of the
British officer that, as a matter of fact, Braddock’s camps were not
usually situated near a good water supply. Complaining on July 7
about the difficulty in getting water at camp No. 19, the officer went
on to make the general observation that they were “obliged to go
generally half a Mile or more [to get water] & even then very bad.”19

The site here proposed for Monacatootha Camp not only fits the
recorded mileages up to that point, but also agrees with (as the
Howell house site does not) the new evidence for the recorded
distance — two miles — between Monacatootha Camp and the one
following it.

J\ (0. /p, July y: blunder camp (Camp near Stewartsville). Of all
the camps, this one raises the most questions. Where was it? What
was Braddock trying to do here? What was the blunder? How did
he retrieve it?

Lacock avoided committing himself to any precise location; he
said only that it was “in the neighborhood of Circleville and
Stewartsville.”20 It is now possible with the new evidence to place

18 PMHB, XXXVIII (1914), 34 (note 74).

Hamilton, 48.

20 PMHB, XXXVIII (1914), 34.

PAI L A. W. WALLACE

January

30

“to avoid the dangerous pass of the narrows.” Whether or not the
“narrows” here referred to were those on Turtle Creek, it is certain
that the lower Turtle Creek Valley was an awkward place for an
army that feared ambush. At some points there was scarcely room
for the road to pass between the cliffs and the water.

The term “narrows” was also used for the path along the east bank
of the Monongahela, above Fraser’s (Frazier’s) trading post at the
mouth of Turtle Creek. The guides warned Braddock that there he
would find “a narrow pass of about two miles, with a river on the
left and a very high mountain on the right, and that it would require
much repair to make it passable to carriages.” They went on to
explain, however, that he could, with a little trouble, outflank these
narrows. “They said,” continued Orme, “the Monongahela had two
extreme good fords, which were very shallow, and the banks not
steep. It was therefore resolved to pass this river. . . .”2''

Having decided to give up the ridge route and to avoid the
dangerous narrows of Turtle Creek as well as those on the Mononga-
hela, Braddock and his army retraced their steps a little and camped
that night, July 7, at a spot which the British officer said was within
six hundred yards of where they had first halted.25 Because of the
time lost, they advanced, according to Gist, only two miles that day.
Gist’s figure is corroborated by the batman, who wrote, “We marched
about two Miles and Incamped Near Turtels Creek.”

Next morning they went down the west side of the ridge (taking
elaborate precautions to avoid ambush in the valley of Long Run)
and camped within “a Small Mile”26 of the Monongahela at what is
now McKeesport.

Camp \o. 20 , July 8: head sugar creek (Monongahela Camp).
At two o’clock on the morning of July 9, Lieutenant Colonel Gage
advanced with between three and four hundred men to secure the
fords of the Monongahela. There was no opposition. By early after-
noon the whole army had made the double crossing and the men, as
one of them wrote, “hugg’d themselves with joy. . . .”2'

Han't sburg Paul A. W. Wallace

- 1 Sargent, 352.

I lamilton, 4S.

- Charles Stotz, ed., "A Letter from Will’s Creek: Harry Gordon’s Account of Braddock''
Defeat, " Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, XI.IV (1961), i 29- 1 36.

27 Ibid., 112, 134-135.

WERT
bookbinding

wIdolftown. m

JUNE '73

Ue,rc<'>ualily&ounii